[Brien]

One of the reasons I joined this forum was to find help in how to better train our 13 week old Beagle. Bodie has been a quick learn in a lot of the basic training areas (i.e. sit, stay, come, leave it, drop it, down, off, etc.) Now granted he's far from consistent, but he obeys a majority of the time.

The one area we struggle is in walks. Because of Beagle's sensitive noses and strong desire to follow them we have yet to really make any progress. We are using a 4' leather lead and collar. We have tried standing our ground when he starts to pull. We've tried redirection (going in the opposite direction). We've tried treats while walking. We've tried giving him designated potty/sniffing locations in the neighborhood. And heaven forbid he sees his Beagle pal Patches down the street. He locks in on her and won't budge. None of these seem to work.

I have wondered if using a muzzle to keep his head off the ground would work. I've read numerous posting on here from folks using harnesses with a variety of results. I'd like to hear more from those who have trained Beagle puppies and the techniques they have used. At this point I'm willing to try anything.

Also, perhaps I need to be educated and adjust my expectations. I would like to have a dog that we could take on walks without all these constant stops. Am I being unrealistic with a Beagle. Can he be a good walking dog? Where do I go from here???

 

[Brien]

Hi Bob, thanks for the info. Over the last few days we've been trying what you suggested. I think by allowing him more freedom to pull ahead instead of trying to reel him in has helped. When he does lock-in on something, I tend to just let him be with maybe a gentle tug to get him going again. I've tried getting him going by sounding excited and all he does is cock his head and look at me with those big brown eyes. My wife has better success using treats at those times. I'm still going to try bringing a toy to see if that helps too.

We've been enrolled in a 8 week puppy class through Petsmart that's been helpful. He's definitely the teacher's pet too.

 

[Brien]

We got Bodie from a breeder in Placerville, CA. He's been breeding field Beagles for 50 years. He has had countless champion Beagles from field trails. In fact, he took us into his trophy room and we were absolutely amazed at the trophies, ribbons and pictures everywhere. He had boxes and boxes of ribbons. I've never seen anything like it.

Anyway, being up in the gold country he names all his Beagles after historical figures from the gold rush era. As soon as we left Holly and I started talking about names. We didn't make it 2 miles before the name Bodie popped into my head. Bodie used to be a gold mining town outside of Bishop. It's now one of the last remaining ghosts towns in these parts. We loved the name and being able to maintain some of the gold heritage made it perfect.

Since Bodie is only 14 weeks now we are keeping his walks to our cul-de-sac. Once his shots are all done we'll start the long walks we all so desire.